In the fabrication process of semiconductor devices such as a semiconductor integrated circuit on a semiconductor wafer, it is commonly practiced to divide the semiconductor wafer into individual chips by a dicing process.
Before applying such a dicing process, it is generally necessary to grind a surface of the wafer opposite a first surface where the semiconductor devices are formed, such that the wafer has a predetermined thickness. For example, such a grinding process can be used to reduce the thickness of a wafer to 500 microns (μ) or less according to the specification of the semiconductor device.
At present all wafer thinning (grinding) is done by taping the device side of the wafers prior to grinding to prevent silica slurry from getting on the device surfaces. The wafers are placed device side down on a chuck which pulls vacuum to hold the wafer in place during the grinding process. It is during the grinding that the ground wafer material can contaminate the device side of the wafer.
In order to prevent damaging of the semiconductor wafer from, for example, cracking at the time of grinding, it is commonly practiced to protect the first side, commonly referred to as the front side, of the wafer by an adhesive medium such as an adhesive tape. Generally, the adhesive tape used for such a purpose carries, on a tape base, an adhesive layer of an acrylic resin with a thickness of about 30–40μ. The tape base, in turn, is formed of a polymer such as a polyolefin, polyvinyl, or polyethylene and generally has a thickness of about 100–150μ.
After the grinding process, removal of the adhesive tape is necessary. In order the help facilitate removal of the tape and adhesive, the adhesive layer used for such a purpose is generally added with a surfactant. By doing so, any adhesives remaining on the substrate surface after tape removal can be more easily removed by cleaning the wafer in purified water or in an organic solvent. It should be noted that the composition of adhesives used in such a tape changes substantially lot by lot, and the adhesive of the tape tends to establish a very intimate adhesion with the wafer surface. Adhesive residues often remain, such as amorphous carbon, nitrides or amorphous polyimides, and extensive cleaning may be required. Such a strong adhesion suggests that there is a cross-link reaction between the adhesive and the residual materials on the wafer. Sometimes up to 60 minutes or more of cleaning time may be required. As the front side surface of the wafer generally includes a film such as a polyimide or SiN, any tape adhesive remaining on the wafer surface after tape removal, raises serious performance problems.
Attempts have been made to use an adhesive tape that carries a UV-cure type adhesive on the tape base for the purpose of the protection of the wafer during the grinding process. When using such a UV-cure type tape, an ultraviolet radiation is applied to the wafer covered by the tape before removing the tape from the wafer for facilitating the removal of the tape. As the adhesive is cured as a result of the ultraviolet radiation, the adhesion of the tape to the wafer is reduced substantially and removal of the tape is achieved more easily. Adhesive residues can still remain even with use of a UV-cure type adhesive. Furthermore, the use of a UV-cure tape in the grinding process may cause a problem in the fabrication of a semiconductor memory device that includes a so-called floating gate, such as a flash memory or EEPROM. More specifically, the initial data written into the floating gate of the device may be erased or modified as a result of the ultraviolet radiation. As a result, use of the UV-cure protective tape has not been made a matter of common practice for fabricating semiconductor devices.
It is possible to eliminate the cleaning process by applying an ozone ashing process for a limited time interval against the front side surface of the wafer after removal of the tape, such that any remaining organic materials are oxidized. However, such an ozone ashing process requires a huge facility investment and the cost of the semiconductor is therefore increased. It is also possible to apply a additional post-treatment process by using an organic solvent such as isopropyl alcohol for removing any remaining adhesive residues. Such a post-treatment inevitably lowers the production through-put of the semiconductor chips.
A technique for fabricating a semiconductor chip wafer which would eliminate the use of a protective tape during the grinding process would be a substantial advance in packaging technology.